Package for fragile articles



Jan. 20, 1970 .1. D. DESMOND ET AL I 3,490,581

PACKAGE FOR FRAGILE ARTICLES 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 6, 1966 Jan. 20, 1970 J. D. DESMOND ET AL 3,490,531

PACKAGE FOR FRAGILE ARTICLES 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 6, 1966 J. D. DESMOND ET AL 3,490,581

PACKAGE FOR FRAGILE ARTICLES Jan. 20, 1970 4 Sheets-Sheei 4 Filed July 6', 1966 United States Patent 3,490,581 PACKAGE FOR FRAGILE ARTICLES John D. Desmond, Philadelphia, and Rodd V. Bixler, Downington, Pa., assignors to Container Corporation of America, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed July 6, 1966, Ser. No. 563,271 Int. Cl. B65d 71/00, /58

US. Cl. 20665 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A package comprises a relatively stiff box and at least a pair of bags formed from flexible sheet material and located within said box. The bags are connected to the box by a web of the flexible sheet material, the web being glued to the box. The bags are being held in suspended relation within the box and each bag is joined to an adjacent bag at the side thereof by a local area of adhesive therebetween spaced from said web.

This invention relates to packaging, and more particularly, to the packaging of an specific carton for fragile articles.

An object of this invention is to provide a means for packaging fragile articles that minimizes breakage thereof, particularly under the normal conditions of handling and transporting.

Another object of this invention is to provide a carton or package that is relatively inexpensive, that is convenient to use and that can be readily fabricated from conventional packages or cartons.

Another object of this invention is to provide a carton particularly adapted to suspend the article packaged therein in spaced relation to the carton walls to prevent the transfer of impact forces received by the carton to the article.

A more specific object of this invention is to provide a package or carton suitable for handling ice cream cones.

These and other objects will be more fully appreciated after referring to the following specification including the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a carton blank of paperboard and of tubes of film secured thereto in an appropriate manner to form one embodiment of the subject carton;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of one tube of film;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the subject carton;

'FIG. 4 is a sectional view as seen generally from line 44 of FIG. 3, except with the carton shown in a partially collapsed condition;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view as seen generally from line 55 of FIG. 3 showing the manner of connection and location of the inner lines within the carton;

FIGS. 6 and 7 are sectional views, as seen generally fromlines 6-6 and 77, respectively, of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of a carton blank of paperboard and of the tubes of film secured thereto to form a second embodiment of the subject carton;

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of a carton fabricated according to the blank and film structure shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a typical sectional view as seen generally from line 1010 of FIG. 9, except showing the carton in a partially collapsed condition;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view, partly schematic, showing how film is fabricated into the twin tube arrangement of the type used with the carton construction of FIGS. 810;

, FIG. 12 is a top plan view of a carton blank of paperboard and of the tubes of film secured thereto to form a third embodiment of a subject carton;

FIG. 13 is a view similar to FIG. 12, except showing the construction thereof in a later sequence of manufacture; and,

FIG. 14 is a typical transverse sectional view of the carton formed in accordance with the construction shown in FIGS. 12 and 13.

The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1-7 includes a conventional carton 11 having a front panel 12, a rear panel 13, and side panels 14 and 15. The carton also has conventional flaps secured together to form bottom and top closures, such flaps 17, 18, 19 and 20 being hinged to the end edges of the side wall panels and overlapped on and secure to one another.

On the interior of the carton, there is disposed one or more elongated tubular bags 21 of a heat fusable film sheet material such as polyvinyl chloride or other suitable equivalent. These bags 21 are each disposed in the carton, the bottom of the bag being closed by heat sealing along lines 22 and 23 to form a pocket 24 of the general shape of the article to be carried. For ice cream cones, for example, the lines 22 and 23 converge downwardly as a V to conform to the conical shape of the cone to offer support for the lowermost cone of a stack of cones along a substantial area. In prior packages, the stack of cones was supported on the point or apex of the bottom cone, which being relatively fragile, quite readily fractured because of the substantial pressure and impact forces thereon.

Each bag 21 is glued or otherwise secured to the carton panels 12 and 13, along glue lines 29 and 30, respectively. The areas of attachment of the bags to the opposite carton panels are offset vertically from one another, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, to prevent the bags from tearing from the carton when the carton is opened, and the bag is extended to its normal shape.

The upper ends 21 of the bags extend above the stack of cones or articles carried therein, and each can be folded down into the respective uppermost cone before the top closure flaps 17-20 are closed. However, should it be desirable to permanently seal the respective bags, the tops could initially be heat sealed and then folded over across the top of the cones to lie between the cones and top wall of the carton.

It can be noted that the construction is easily formed by initially applying lines of adhesive 29 to the panel 12 and lapping the separate bags over the lines of adhesive in properly located positions to secure them along one line to the carton. Thereafter, second lines of adhesive 30 are applied to the panel 13 and the panel is folded over against the bags. The carton is then formed to the tubular structure in the well-known manner by applying the adhesive along line 26 to overlap with glue flap 27 of manufacturers joint of the carton.

A second embodiment is disclosed in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 which is quite similar to the embodiment disclosed in FIGS. 1-7 and differs therefrom in one aspect in that the bags are formed of a continuous sheet of material and are connected together by web portion 32. This web portion is glued to one of the carton panels along top area 33, while the opposite sides of the bags are secured to the opposite carton panel along the bottom areas 34 and 35. I

The FIG. 11 shows in a schematic view the matter of forming the twin pack bags disclosed in FIGS. 810 from a single sheet. A roll of sheet material is folded over on itself generally in half towards the center and the folded end edges are heat sealed to the underlying sheet. Thereafter, the appropriate top and bottom seal locations of each bag are made in the overlapped sheets, and the sheets cut to the respective individual bag lengths.

The carton in FIGS. 810 is fabricated in a manner generally similar to the first embodiment, wherein the 3 bag is initially secured to the major carton panel when the latter is in the flattened condition, and the opposite carton panel is then folded over and secured to the bag. The tubular carton is then formed by the adhesive coated lapped manufacturers panel in the conventional manner.

A third embodiment is disclosed in FIGS. 12-14 that is generally similar to the FIGS. 8-10 embodiment, but differs therefrom in the sense that additional points 40 and 41 of adhesive are located between adjacent sections of the bags and between the bag and panel 12. This maintains the bags in these areas in close proximity to one another and tends to open the bags automatically and fully upon the carton being opened to provide for easier product loading into the bag. This general relationship is accomplished by locating the adhesive points near the open top of the bag at the top of the carton walls, and spaced from the tangent points of the product with the bags.

In order to provide for easier manufacture of the second and third embodiments disclosed herein, the free ends of the bags are separated from one another by slits 50, 51 and 52. Preferably, the bottom slits 50 and 51 are generally in alignment with the hinge from which the bags are secured to the carton. The top slit 52 is in the area between the separate bags. The cuts in the lines material tend to separate the two bags to provide for improved initial sealing or forming of the carton as well as easier product loading and dispensing.

What is claimed is:

1. A package comprising:

(a) a relatively stiff box having panels forming an enclosure for the contents;

(b) at least a pair of bags formed from flexible sheet material and located within said box;

(0) said bags being connected by a web of said flexible sheet material;

((1) said web being glued to an adjacent panel of said box along a substantial area to support said bags in suspended relation within said box;

(e) each of said bags being joined to an adjacent bag at the side thereof by a local area of adhesive therebetween spaced from said web.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,240,331 3/1966 Weinstein 206 JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner JOHN M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 229-14 

